


Scilicet Addendum: Sodales

by Captain_Rachel



Series: The Rachel Wayne Universe [5]
Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan), Batman - All Media Types, Batman: The Animated Series, DCU, DCU (Animated), Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Female Bruce Wayne, Gen, Genderswap, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, The Rachel Wayne Universe, soulmate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-19
Updated: 2015-06-19
Packaged: 2018-04-05 03:29:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4164021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Captain_Rachel/pseuds/Captain_Rachel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are an infinite number of parallel Earths. Sometimes the differences are so small as to be neigh on unnoticeable… but on this one they are not. For on this Earth, the moment that your soul mate is born the first words they will say to you are written on your skin, like a tattoo— red words means the speaker is your romantic soul mate, while black words indicate a platonic bond.<br/>This is also a world where Thomas and Martha Wayne died… but Rachel Wayne survived.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scilicet Addendum: Sodales

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Scilicet… (That Is To Say…)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/288614) by [Captain_Rachel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Captain_Rachel/pseuds/Captain_Rachel). 



> Author’s Note – This is a spin off from my main ongoing story, Scilicet… and (roughly) follows the chronology and such of that story’s universe. So it’s essentially an AU of an AU. While it’s probably “understandable” to a non-reader of Scilicet… you’ll get the most enjoyment out of this story if you go read at least the first few chapters of Scilicet… and thus get an idea of what’s going on.

_— 1 —_

Rachel Antonietta Wayne is born with two sets of words— the dark black words of her platonic soulmate just beneath her hairline on the back of her neck and the dusty red words of her romantic soulmate across the palm and index finger of her right hand. Like most children who are born with their words, Rachel’s are blurred together into a sort of smudge that could be easily mistaken for a birthmark, if not for the color. When Thomas and Martha return from Gotham General with their new baby daughter wrapped in a pale pink blanket one of the first things they do is put her in the arms of Alfred Pennyworth. The British man— who hair has just begun to go grey— smiles down at the little girl with wide brown eyes and a light dusting of black hair—and gently whispers _“Hello Miss Wayne”_ to the squirming baby girl.

A little over a year later Alfred Pennyworth is taking tea to his employers, who are each kneeling on the floor of Wayne Manor’s library as Rachel slowly walks out of her mother’s arms and into the outstretched arms of her father. As Thomas Wayne helps his daughter to turn around and prepare for the return trip the little girl catches sight of the family butler, smiles and says her first word.

_“Alfred!”_

A shock runs down the older man’s spine and the little girl’s word seems to echo in his mind as the tray in his hands goes crashing to the floor. Martha Wayne instantly snatches up her daughter— who had started walking towards the butler— while her husband Thomas moves to assist Alfred, clearly afraid that the older man has had a heart attack, or is otherwise unwell.

It takes a second for Alfred to gather his thoughts enough to assure the young Doctor that he is perfectly fine, during which time Thomas Wayne maneuvers the two of them so that they are sitting on a nearby couch.

As Martha, with her daughter squirming in her arms, sits down on the couch beside him, Alfred Pennyworth calmly shrugs off his jacket and rolls back the white sleeve which covers his right arm, revealing a single black word written in black— **_Alfred_** _!_ Without speaking Martha Wayne gently pushes back the locks of hair covering her daughter’s own platonic soul mark— revealing the words **_Hello Miss Wayne._** written in what is unmistakably Alfred Pennyworth’s handwriting.

Seven years later— despite both Martha and Thomas Wayne’s wills— those two sets of jet black words are the only thing that stops William Earle from being named Rachel Wayne’s legal guardian.

Nine years after that— despite the fact that **_Alfred!_** is still written in jet black upon Alfred Pennyworth’s right arm— William Earle has Rachel Antonietta Wayne declared legally dead.

 

— 2 —

Rachel Antonietta Wayne is born with two sets of words— the dark black words of her platonic soulmate just beneath her hairline on the back of her neck and the dusty red words of her romantic across the palm and index finger of her right hand.

Although Alfred’s words are large enough to be read by the time that she says his word, the red words of her romantic don’t become distinct enough to read until shortly after her second birthday… thanks in large part to how _messy_ said soulmate’s handwriting is.

**_Miss Wayne— I’ve heard so much about you._ **

Alfred Pennyworth is the first to notice that Rachel’s _other_ set of words is finally large enough to read… however Thomas Wayne is the first to speculate about what sort of person his daughter’s romantic will be. Upon seeing the slanted scrawl which decorates his daughter’s left hand, Thomas declares that her soulmate _must_ be a doctor— or at least a medical student of some kind. Thomas is, after all, a Doctor himself and acts a mentor to a group of medical students at Gotham General, so he has a wealth of experience with the handwriting of Doctors and med students. As Thomas Wayne informs his wife he goes on to swear that none of his students are allowed anywhere near his daughter until she is at _least_ twenty-five. Meanwhile Martha Wayne simply shakes her head and, with a smile on her face, gently reminds her husband about how wrong each of them had been when they’d tried to interpret their own words.

Like her daughter, Martha Wayne had been born with her romantic soulmate’s words— ** _Can I get you something to drink?_ — **written in what was undeniably a “doctor’s scrawl” on the outer side of her left foot. As a young woman Martha had thought that her words meant she was going to meet her at a bar or in some club, which had lead to her getting quite the “party girl” reputation before she’d grown out of trying to force a meeting with her and gotten into charity work.

A little over a years later Martha Kane had attended a charity ball and a mutual acquaintance had introduced her to Thomas Wayne… which had lead to her saying aloud the words that had appeared on the older man’s chest, just above his heart, when he was three years old— **_It’s a pleasure to finally meet you Doctor._**

Thomas Wayne— who had always thought that his words would belong to a patient or one of their relatives— was so taken aback that it took him an uncomfortably long time to stammer out a response— **_Can I get you something to drink?_**

Martha had only managed to get halfway through saying that those were her words and hasn’t even started to ask if they where his before her future husband cuts her off with an enthusiastic “yes”. In the end, Thomas never did get around to getting her that drink… yet despite his and his wife’s history of attempting to interpret their soul marks, Thomas Wayne remains adamant that his daughter is going to marry one of his medical students… and Martha Wayne remains adamant that he’ll be proven wrong and Alfred tactically refrains from getting involved in the debate… in the end Martha is proven right, though not in any sort of way that she could have possibly predicted.

At only eight years old Rachel Wayne finds herself kneeling beside her parents’ bodies in a dingy alley in downtown Gotham—too scared to scream and too shocked to cry out—when the red words on her left hand start _burning_. It is that sudden, unknown and unexpected pain which breaks through the shock and the terror and the newly orphaned girl _screams_ as her soulmate’s words burn away and it starts to sink in that her parents are dead because she was _scared and she made them leave the opera._

Rachel stops screaming and settles for wordless, practically soundless sobs when the first person to arrive on the scene pulls her away from her parent’s bodies… but the words on her hand don’t stop _burning_ until a young James Gordon places her father’s coat around her shoulders and tells her that everything is going to be okay… As Commissioner Loeb informs her that the police have caught her parents’ murderer Rachel Wayne finally glances down at her hands and finds that her left hand is unmarked... as if she never had any words there at all.

Even as an eight year old child Rachel Wayne knows that your words aren’t supposed to just disappear. Her father has told her that if a limb with your words on it is amputated then they will “move” to somewhere else on your body. Her mother had once told her that if your dies then your words fade to a pale gray or a pale red… but they aren’t supposed to just _vanish_ , let alone _burn_.

Alfred Pennyworth notices the “missing” words on Rachel Wayne hand almost instantly… and as soon as the two of them are alone in the car— Alfred driving and Rachel sitting in the passenger seat with her knees drawn up to her chin— he rolls back his sleeve and has to bit his lip to stop himself from letting out a relieved sigh when he sees that **_Alfred!_** is still written there. Rachel lets out her own soft relieved noise and— at the next stop light— she silently lifts her hair up and turns so that Alfred can see her neck... and once again he struggles to remain silent when he sees **_Hello Miss Wayne._** is still written on the young girl’s neck.

“Still there.” He whispers, making no move to roll his sleeve back down or to remove his right arm from Rachel’s grasp. Over the next few months this scene repeats itself several times… but Alfred Pennyworth and Rachel Wayne never talk about the young girl’s “missing” words and— other than a few brief moments in high school and college when Rachel ends up near romantic meeting for the first time and the one or two times where someone shows her their words in the hope that she is their owner, Rachel doesn’t really think about red words— or her ongoing lack of said red words.

That all changes the moment that she learns that Joe Chill—the man who killed her parents—is not only being _granted_ a parole hearing, but is almost definitely going to be _let out_. She spends the entire hearing with her left hand fisted so tightly in her pocket that her nails are digging into her palm and— when the Judge asks if she has anything to say…

_You killed my parents. You **killed** my parents and because of you my words **burned** away and the **never** came back._

But in the end she doesn’t speak. She feels blood starting to run down her hand and forcibly unclenches her hand and storms out of the courtroom, knowing that no matter what she does Joe Chill is going to walk out of that court room as a free man.

She is right handed. In a few years she’ll train herself to be neigh-ambidextrous, but at that moment, when she waits outside the courthouse for Joe Chill to emerge, she is right handed… but she holds the gun in her _left_ hand. The gun feels so horribly _right,_ cradled by the skin where her words should have been, cradled by _Miss Wayne—I’ve heard so much about you._ Rachel could almost swear that those words are _burning_ again as her parents’ murderer walks out of the courtroom …

_Hey Joe— Falcone says hi._

For years afterwards—both during her little trip around the world and after her return to Gotham— Rachel Wayne will dream that there was no mobster waiting to kill Joe Chill. She will dream that she was the one who pulled the trigger, that Joe Chill died by _her_ hand. In those dreams her red words return as Joe Chill breathes his last and the Police haul her away… but not the same red words that she’d been born with.

Between leaving Gotham and getting thrown into a Chinese Prison Rachel checks her words four times… after all it’s somewhat difficult to do, since Rachel either needs two mirrors or someone she trusts in order to see if **_Hello Miss Wayne._** is still written in jet black upon the back of her neck. When she is thrown into prison the guards admitting her— or doing what passes for admitting a prisoner in this prison in the middle of nowhere— remark on their presence but can’t read English and don’t care enough to find someone who does.

 

—    3 —

Despite the fact that she had slept better the previous night then she had in almost seven months, Rachel Wayne is not lying when she tells Henri Ducard that she can barley stand let alone _fight_. It had been less then twenty-four hours since she’d fought six men and been rather violently thrown in solitary without any sort of medical treatment. It’s still the same _day_ that she was thrown out of the back of a moving truck and climbed up a mountain in clothing that is no way suited to the cold climate. But he doesn’t give her a choice and, somehow, she manages to hold her own against the man she assumes to be Ra’s Al Ghul’s right hand man.

By the time their little bout is over Rachel Wayne really is about two seconds from falling over as Henri Ducard— who is apparently going to be her teacher— shows her to a chamber where there is water for her to wash away the grime of the prison and a change of clothes. As she emerges from the bathing chamber and finds Henri Ducard waiting for her she trips and almost falls… not because of how tired she is, but because she’s just noticed that she has _words_ on her right arm—and not just any words, but the blood red words of a romantic and she _knows_ that they weren’t there this morning when she had been tossed out of that truck, because that fall had caused her coat to ride up enough that she would have noticed any _words_ written on her arm.

But there it is— **_Are you so desperate to fight criminals that you lock yourself in to take them on one at a time?_** — written in a steady hand in the same red which she faintly remembers from the words which used to be on her left hand. After a half second’s frozen shock Rachel Wayne’s gaze snaps to Henri Ducard, who is staring at her arm as intently as she must have been staring not two seconds ago.

“It… it had to have appeared today.” She informs the older man and he reaches out, grasping not her hand but her wrist and half pulling half guiding her through the Monastery, to what Rachel assumes are his chambers. Then Henri Ducard casts off his suit and, almost immediately, finds Rachel’s response— **_Actually there were seven of them_.** — written in the exact same spot on his arm that his words are written on her’s.

“I— I was born with red words.” Rachel whispers as she stares at his arm before her eyes dart back to her own. “On my left hand. They burned away when my parents were murdered.”

“I had a wife— her words were on the palm of right hand.” Henri admits. “After she was killed… they faded away until nothing was left.”

When everything goes to hell and Rachel leaves Henri Ducard in the care of the inhabitants of the small mountain village **_Are you so desperate to fight criminals that you lock yourself in to take them on one at a time?_** is still written on her arm in Henri’s handwriting. Rachel makes no effort to hide the words from Alfred… but he never asks and she never answers. She tells Alfred Pennyworth about the League of Shadows, even mentions Henri Ducard as her teacher, but she never mentions that the words on her arm are _his_ until she wakes up having lost what she didn’t even know she had…

 

_— 4 —_

… and with a new set of blood red words written in Henri’s handwriting on her right arm.

**_But is Ra’s Al Ghul immortal? Are his methods supernatural?_ **

Or at least, she _thinks_ there is a new set of blood red words on her right arm and she _think_ it’s still Henri’s handwriting. Because—when Alfred tells her what has happened—she looks down and sees _**But is Ra’s Al Ghul immortal? Are his methods supernatural?**_ but when she suits up in order to save Bruce Dawes from Arkham Asylum the words on her arm reads **_Are you so desperate to fight criminals that you lock yourself in to take them on one at a time?_** once again. After Bruce is safe and while Rachel races to get dressed so she can go tend to her guests she sees **_But is Ra’s Al Ghul immortal? Are his methods supernatural?_**

She’s too busy to ask Alfred what he sees and, to tell the truth, too terrified of what her plutonic might say… however when she finds herself face to face with the man responsible for both sets of words, she’s fairly certain that Hen—that _Ra’s Al Ghul_ sees **_But is Ra’s Al Ghul immortal? Are his methods supernatural?_** written on her arm, when she reveals it to him before Alfred informs the head of the League of Shadows what damage his fear toxin had done to his.

Ra’s Al Ghul doesn’t check his own words… not in front of Rachel at least, so she has no idea if the older man now has **_Or cheap parlor tricks to conceal your true identity…_** _Ra’s._ written upon his right arm instead of **_Actually there were seven of them_.**

By the time the sun rises over Gotham the next morning, Rachel Wayne is obediently sitting in the cave beneath her home, staring down at her blessedly blank arm as Alfred Pennyworth does his best to bandage his platonic while the young woman turned hero keeps a gentle but firm grasp on his arm, where **_Alfred!_ ** seems to be a dark shade of black than ever before. He doesn’t comment on Rachel Wayne’s gentle grasp— and she doesn’t comment on the fact that Alfred Pennyworth’s hand keeps brushing against the back of her neck, where she knows **_Hello Miss Wayne._** still lies, perhaps a little bit obscured by bruises, but as black as it ever was.

 

— 5 —

When Rachel Wayne climbs out of the cave beneath Wayne Manor Alfred Pennyworth ensures she strips off her muddy shoes before sending her up to change out of her clothes, which are worse for wear after her inspection of the cave and the remnants of Wayne Manor’s Underground Railroad days. Rachel is so lost in thought over her plans, over what she plans to turn the cave into and what she plans to do that it isn’t until after she’s taken and shower and is changing into new clothes that she notices four words— **_What do you want?_** — written in plain black print script that all but encircles her left ankle like some sort of anklet.

The sudden appearance of the black words of a platonic are a shock, but one she recovers from rather quickly… she just assumes that Mr. or Miss. **_What do you want?_** is a newborn who is going to be a student or some sort of alley at some point in the future. Unlike Henri Ducard’s words, which are still written in blood red on her right arm, Rachel points these words out to Alfred Pennyworth… and then all but forgets about the new words, since she assumes that they won’t factor into her life for many years.

However those four words rear their head only four days later, when she sneaks into Gotham Police Headquarters in an outfit more appropriate for a burglar then a hero in order to talk with Sergeant James Gordon and the man says those four words to her right as she looks down at his desk and sees his handwriting… which exactly matches that of the words that encircle her ankle and make no god damn sense.

If the words are James Gordon’s, and not just some weird coincidence, then Rachel should have been _born_ with **_Is that your father’s? Come here—it’s okay._** After all, those had been the _first_ words Gordon had said to her, all those years ago when Gordon was just an ordinary police officer trying to make the sad little eight year old sitting in Police HQ feel a little better.

In the end there’s simply _too much happening_ for Rachel Wayne too spend too much time thinking about the words on her ankle… and it’s not like she’s in a position where she can just go up to the Sergeant and ask him if he has **_Don’t turn around. You’re a good cop… one of the few._** written somewhere on his body in black handwriting. The whole mess with Hen—with _Ra’s Al Ghul’s_ words also helps to distract Rachel Wayne from the unobtrusive words which encircle her leg.

When James Gordon is promoted from Sergeant to Lieutenant, a spotlight appears on the roof of Gotham Police Headquarters... and it is by the side of this spotlight that the two meet— face to cowl— for the first time since the immediate aftermath of the incident in the Narrows. Batwoman has information on the movements of Gotham’s mobsters, while Gordon has information on a possible new threat… however as she starts to move towards the edge of the roof she is stopped by four words from the man who will soon be all but field-promoted to Gotham’s Police Commissioner.

“You said my words…” As he speak and Batwoman turns back towards him Gordon awkwardly rolls up the sleeve of his shirt. There, in the print script Rachel has started using on the rare occasion she needs to write something “as” Batwoman are the words she’d spoken to him… **_Don’t turn around. You’re a good cop… one of the few._** The black words are wrapped Gordon’s right wrist— just like how Gordon’s words encircle Rachel’s ankle.

“Confused the hell out of me.” Gordon admits, looking down at his wrist and slowly turning his hand so that he can read the words. “I mean, they only appeared a few days before… well _before_.”

And at that exact moment the Dark Knight understand why she has **_What do you want?_** written on her ankle and why **_Don’t turn around. You’re a good cop… one of the few._** appeared on James Gordon’s wrist only a few days before they were spoken aloud… _Our words appeared on the night Batwoman was “born”._

“So you…” Gordon trails off as Batwoman realizes that she must have murmured at least part of her thoughts aloud.

“Yes.” Batwoman admits. “It’s… it’s a little hard to show you in this getup.”

“One day?”

She intends to say _Perhaps…_ but instead what comes out is “I promise.”

 

_— 6 —_

Rachel Wayne returns from her adventures in the Narrows and her railcar confrontation with Ra’s Al Ghul to find that find that there are no longer any red words on her right arm… but there are a new set of red words on her _left_ arm— **_So what brings Rachel Wayne to Metropolis?_ **

The words are comprised of thin print script letters which slant heavily to the right, as if the person was writing them while in a hurry, or perhaps simply while placed under a high level of stress.

She doesn’t hesitate to show these words to Alfred… not that she’d really have an option, since she discovers said words while her platonic is bandaging her up and there just happens to be a rather nasty cut on her arm just below said words. However Alfred Pennyworth does not comment on the Wayne Heiress’ new red words until almost a hour afterwards, when he is helping her stumble into her bed for a well deserved rest…

“Perhaps a vacation to Metropolis is in order?” Alfred suggests as he leans over to make sure that the stitches he’s just put into Rachel’s left leg haven’t ripped en route to her bedroom.

“I can’t leave Gordon to clean up this mess on his own.” Rachel replies as she reaches down to rest a hand over the black words which encircle her ankle. “After all, I think these are his.”

“Think?” Alfred asks, raising one eyebrow.

“They showed up four days before he said them… and I haven’t had the chance to ask if he has my words somewhere on him.” Rachel explains as she all but falls back, her head landing on the pillows as her exhausted yawn is cut off by a flinch of pain. “Or figure out why they only showed up _then_ … or why those words are there instead of the ones he said to me when I was a child.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” Alfred mutters as he pulls the blankets up around the Wayne Heiress, as if she is a child once again and not a woman grown who has decided to spend her nights jumping off buildings and punching people.

She figures out the words on her ankle not long after Alfred Pennyworth makes this prediction… but when Rachel Wayne does finally end up in Metropolis she’s too preoccupied with figuring out what the Joker is planning on doing with the _twenty pounds_ of Kryptonite to realize that Clark Kent’s first words to her are **_So what brings Rachel Wayne to Metropolis?_**

 

_— 7 —_

Clark Kent, thanks partially to the fact that he’s a reporter but mostly to the fact that he’s a superhero, has been paying attention to the strange reports of “THE BAT” which are leaking out of Gotham. However, thanks again to the fact that he is a superhero, Clark Kent doesn’t find out about the explosive events in the section of Gotham called the “Narrows” until the early hours of the following morning… he had been on the way back from helping the Green Lantern Corps. While he’s as interested in the sightings of this “Bat” in Gotham as any other member of the League and as eager to learn what in the hell happened in the Narrows as… well pretty much the entire world, Clark Kent is distracted from news from Gotham when— as he changes out of the cape and tights and into his suit and prepares to go into work at the _Daily Planet_ — he sees red words on what had been clear skin.

Clark Kent— the Last Son of Krypton, the Man of Steel—has _never_ had words. He’s never had the red words of a romantic _or_ the black words of a platonic. As a child he’d just assumed that his, or soulmates, weren’t born yet… then his parents had confessed to find him in a _spaceship_ and— well he’d just assumed that Kryptonians didn’t have soulmates, or at least didn’t have the tattoo like words which allowed humans to find their soulmates.

But now there is not one, but _two_ sets of words— one on each hip— and both are the same deep red color that the words he remembered seeing around Jonathan and Martha Kent’s writs. Both sets of words are almost absurdly short— just two words each— and while one is (or perhaps that should be _probably_ is) rather distinctive, the other is somewhat worryingly common. But never the less, on Clark Kent’s left hip **_I’m sorry!_** is written in elegant cursive, while on his right hip, in straightforward print script, is written **_You peeked._**

It’s weird enough to get any words at all, given not only that he’s an alien— albeit one which looks like a human— and that he’s (roughly) twenty-three years old… but to get _two_ sets of words? At the exact same time? And both in the red of a romantic soulmate? Well that’s _truly_ weird, even for someone who spends a great deal of his time flying around in what is essentially spandex.

But despite the sudden appearance of his words and all the time which Kal-El spends just staring at said marks and wondering what sort of person his soulmates will be, he brushes it off when Rachel Wayne’s first words to him are **_I’m sorry!_ ** since, after all, it’s something that “clumsy Clark” hears rather frequently and he’s pretty sure that if the Gotham Billionaire had **_So what brings Rachel Wayne to Metropolis?_** Written somewhere on her body she’d have told him.

He doesn’t miss the fact that **_You peeked._** are Batwoman’s first words to him... but it’s not like Clark is in any sort of position to ask if, somewhere on the Dark Knight’s body his own handwriting reads **_That’s enough. I think you’ve got your answer. I heard you were crazy, but I didn’t think you were stupid._**

So Clark Kent keeps his mouth shut and makes a concerted effort _not_ to piss off the Dark Knight… after all, there’s a good chance that the woman behind the black cape and cowl is his, and even if she isn’t, he’s starting to get the feeling that you don’t want Batwoman pissed at you.

 

_— 8 —_

When it becomes clear to Rachel Wayne that she is going to need some sort of alias that will enable her to mingle with the common criminals and other forms of riffraff which live in Gotham, it doesn’t take her long to come up with a name— Charlotte Malone— a memorable nickname— “Matches”— and all the details of said aliases personality and life story. However Rachel Wayne is not the one who figures out what some people would argue is one of the most important facts about a person—the words written in black or red upon their skin.

No, Alfred Pennyworth is the one who comes up with just what exactly should be written on Matches’ skin and where in particular it should be written… so, whenever Rachel Wayne dresses up in the tight, revealing clothes which Matches prefers, she does so with **_So why do they call you Matches?_** written in red upon her right breast— where it is on full display in thanks to the plunging necklines which Matches Malone favors.

Matches Malone’s fake words see the light of day more often than all but one of Rachel Wayne’s real words… Rachel only hides Alfred’s **_Hello Miss Wayne._** when she goes out as Matches—at all other times they are informally hidden, be it by the armor which protects her as Batwoman or her hair as Billionaire Rachel Wayne. However the red words reading **_What brings Rachel Wayne to Metropolis?_** on her left arm and the black words reading **_What do you want?_** on her left ankle spend most of their time _purposefully_ covered, either by makeup and concealer or by long sleeves and pants or high shoes. She covers **_What do you want?_** out of fear that James Gordon— now Gotham’s Police Commissioner— will somehow see a picture of Rachel Wayne’s words and recognize both the words and his handwriting. She covers **_What brings Rachel Wayne to Metropolis?_** partially because she is also covering Gordon’s words… and partially because of her past experiences… both with the red words themselves and the owners of those words.

****

_— 9 —_

_Superman?_ Clark Kent is fast asleep— he hears the words but just incorporates them into his dream. Superman? So it isn’t until the third and most forceful cry of his name— _Superman!_ — that the Last Son of Krypton wakes so suddenly that he manages to fall out of bed and it takes him a second to respond to the Dark Knight’s call over the Justice League’s communicators… and is instructed to follow Batwoman’s car. Despite his sudden awakening it takes him less than a minute to reach Gotham and start following the Tumbler… which rushes through the Gotham streets before heading out of town and _through a waterfall_ , which leads into a tunnel carved out by an underground river that leads to what must have been a natural cave which the Dark Knight had expanded on in order to provide herself with enough room for her base of operations.

“This is amazing!” Clark whispers as he stares at the central computer, what looks like a sort of changing room, a medical area which he hopes is only infrequently used and what appears to be a sort of mini-museum of the Dark Knight’s exploits— he sees a penny larger than a car and a katana leaning against a mannequin wearing ragged black clothing.

“Welcome to the Batcave.” Batwoman replies as she climbs out of her car and heads over to the computer.

“Seriously? That’s what you call it?” Clark asks with a laugh… which turns suddenly to a frown and concern when he realizes the smile on the Dark Knight’s face is rather forced and she sees… well _nervous_. “What’s wrong?”

“I… I decided that I’m ready.” Batwoman says and before Superman can ask what the hell she means by that, the other hero reaches up and removes her cowl… revealing that Gotham’s Dark Knight is none other than _Rachel Wayne_.

For a moment Clark Kent is too shocked to say anything… not because _Batwoman is Rachel Wayne_ but because he realizes he’s pretty sure that his two sets of red words _both_ belong to the woman standing in front of him… and he has no god damn idea how in the hell that works. Does it mean that Rachel has two sets of words as well? One from “Clark Kent” and one from “Superman”?

“Clark?” Rachel’s voice and her hand on his shoulder snap him out of his thoughts and he speaks without knowing what he’s going to say until he actually says it.

“My words.”

“What?”

“I think… I think I have your words.” Clark explains, awkwardly reaching down and separating the “shirt” of his outfit from the pants so that he can show the Dark Knight the red words written on his hips… Rachel takes a sudden startled breath as first **_You peeked._** and then **_I’m sorry!_** are revealed, before her own hands fly her left arm, pulling off first her gloves, then the bladed gauntlet she wears before she pushes back the more flexible body armor which lies beneath… revealing **_So what brings Rachel Wayne to Metropolis?_** written in red on her forearm, in what Clark instantly recognizes as his own handwriting. He waits for her to pull off more of her suit… but all the Dark Knight does is stare at the words on Clark’s hips before glancing back at the words written on her left arm.

“I didn’t realize it was you.” She whispers. “I was too… too preoccupied with the Joker. I never even _thought…_ ”

“You only have one?”

“I have two other marks— both platonic.” Rachel replies. “Alfred’s on the back of my neck and Gordon’s on my left ankle.”

“So why do I have two?” Clark asks as he hesitantly reaches out to run his fingers over the words on Rachel’s forearm. “I mean… is one _not_ yours?”

“No… not exactly. This is Rachel’s Wayne's…” As she speaks she reaches out with her still gloved right and rests it over **_I’m sorry!_** for a second before repeating the gesture with **_You peeked._** “And this is Batwoman’s— I guess I somehow count as two people... but since those two share one body I’ve only got the one set of words.”

The Billionaire looks so lost that—instead of saying anything or kissing her— Clark simply steps forward and pulls Rachel Wayne into his arms, where she stands frozen for a second before slowly… well _melting_ into his embrace.

“I’m sorry.” She whispers and Clark feels the splash of tears on his shoulder.

“Why?” He asks, keeping a tight hold on the beautiful talented women whose words he is so proud to wear.

“You’ve got a freak for a.” Rachel replies and Clark pulls back just enough so that he can look into the Dark Knight’s eyes.

“My is a brilliant, beautiful Billionaire who can kick my ass despite the fact that she doesn’t have any super powers and I have practically _all_ of them.” Clark replies, a huge smile on his face.

The Last Son of Krypton stays the night. The next day Rachel Wayne shows up in the newsroom of _The Daily Planet_ and all but drags Clark Kent out to a crazily expensive lunch at Empirica. If not for the arrival of a distress call from a member of the Green Lantern Corps requesting Superman’s assistance with some sort of would-be dictator on a plant several light years away then Clark Kent and Rachel Wayne’s second (official) date would have been to Isabella Cygné’s fourth 29 th birthday party.

_— 10 —_

Rachel Wayne wakes up alone, with her romantic several _light years_ away, a newly orphaned boy sleeping in the room across the hall from her own bedroom and the words **_It’s not your fault._** written on her wrist in simple black cursive letters. The new words curl around her right wrist like a bracelet, in a strange mirror to Gordon’s words on her left ankle. After inspecting the new words and making a mental note to inform Alfred and Clark of them at some point in the near future, the Billionaire goes through her usual morning routine of covering all of her marks— save for Alfred’s **_Hello Miss Wayne._**

That very night Rachel Wayne finds herself cowl to face with Dick Grayson, with James Gordon at her side as the young orphaned boy says “ ** _It’s not your fault_.** ” and throws his arms around her, hugging the Dark Knight tightly as he thanks her for brining his parents’ murderer to justice. By that point Rachel Wayne has all but decided to adopt Dick— or at the very least become his foster parent— so she doesn’t think that the words on her wrist will have any _immediate_ effect… until the next morning, when Rachel Wayne finds Dick Grayson packing up what little he has removed from his suitcase.

“Dick?” She asks and the young man turns to face her, awkwardly shifting from foot to foot as between her and his suitcase.

“Batwoman got him.” He whispers, one hand rubbing at a spot on his right hip. “You can send me off to Foster Care now.”

“Dick...” Rachel pauses for a second, trying not to think about the words on her wrist, which she hadn’t gotten around to covering when she’d decided to check on the young boy. “Do you want to leave?”

“What?” Dick blinks.

“I don’t want to send you off to Foster Care.” Rachel replies, her voice cracking slightly as she moves towards the young boy. “I’d like to have someone to come home to—someone other than Alfred…”

Any reply that Dick Grayson could give is cut off by Rachel Wayne kneeling in front of him and holding out her arm so that Dick Grayson can see that **_It’s not your fault._** is written in black upon the Billionaire’s wrist in his own handwriting. For a second neither one talks, then Dick slowly pushes down the side of the jeans he is wearing, revealing that **_I’m sorry about your parents._** is written in black on his hip, so far to the side that it’s practically on his back and written in a strange sort of mixture of Rachel’s handwriting and the print script she uses as Batwoman.

“Wait… _you’re Batwoman?!?_ ”

Before the day is out Dick Grayson has started his campaign to get his newly found platonic to allow him to follow in her footsteps and protect Gotham… Rachel Wayne manages to hold out for almost three weeks before the combined efforts of Alfred Pennyworth and Dick Grayson break her resolve and she starts training the young boy whose words decorate her right wrist… which she does not draw any attention to, but never the less leaves uncovered.

_— 11 —_

He knows that he can’t trust most of his memories. Oh, he knows there’s some sort of truth in the various versions he remembers and the various stories he tells people. However there is one memory that he knows is true, one memory which never changes, one memory which stands alone in a sea of uncertainty… that is the memory of the red words which had appeared on the palm of his right hand when he was five years old— **_And my father’s told me so much about you._**

He remember how beautiful the words had been, how perfect his soulmate’s handwriting had been and how perfectly the blood red letters were placed across his hand. He remembers how proud he’d been of those words, how much he’d looked forward to meeting the one who would speak them, how much time he spent thinking about what he would say that would lead to his replying with the words **_And my father’s told me so much about you._**

But he also remembers how— only eight short years later— he’d woke screaming in the middle of the night and how he’d only been able to scream in pain and watch in horror as his soulmate’s beautiful, perfect words _burned_ away, leaving nothing but pale skin and the memory of what had been.

Unlike his other memory—be they true or false, intentionally or unintentionally created—he never speaks of this memory. He never shares it, never uses it to taunt, to scare or simply to give him something to say. He never speaks of his lost words… not to his doctors, or the orderlies, not to his employers, not to his hostages, not to his victims, not to his minions, not to Harley… not even to Batwoman or the strangely alluring Billionaire, Rachel Wayne.

From time to time he wonders if the great flying rodent has a similar story… if she once had beautiful blood red words that went away and if it because of those words that she tries so desperately to save Gotham from itself. Every now and then his thoughts will drift back to the Dark Knight and he’ll wonder if her suit covers faded red words, or if her words vanished like his did… once— just once— he finds himself day dreaming that Batwoman had _his_ words… and falls out of his bed laughing at the absurdity of the idea…

_“What’s up with the Joker?”_

_“Who the hell knows? Guy’s a freak—I mean, he doesn’t even have **words**.”_

**Author's Note:**

> I may add on to this in the future as new chapters of Scilicet… come out. But no promises.


End file.
